Polycentric pioneers? Explaining variations in governance models and their impacts on local climate change policy

气候变化背后的科学已经确立，现在减缓气候变化已经成为一个政治难题。我们需要迅速采取行动，减轻气候变化的最严重影响，因此，该项目旨在寻找并分享可供全社会使用的有效政策解决方案。直到最近，气候变化的尝试解决方案都是“自上而下”的：例如，联合国组织年度会议，那些产生最多温室气体的国家主导着这些谈判。然而，这种应对气候变化的方法未能足够快地产生有效的变化，学者们正在为这一最紧迫和最重要的问题寻找新的治理解决方案。学者们越来越多地认为，我们需要改进地方层面的政策制定，并赋予广泛的人带头应对气候变化的权力。他们尤其认为，我们需要“多中心治理”。多中心治理涉及企业、非政府组织和政府机构相互独立地工作，同时也相互重叠和协调，作为复杂的多层次网络的一部分。其结果应该是，任何个人团体或组织都不应单独对减缓气候变化负责，因此，网络中的每个“节点”都被鼓励履行自己的职责，而不必担心被其他人利用。然而，尽管学术界越来越支持多中心治理，但关于如何创建这些网络，或者它们是否对减缓气候变化产生积极影响的研究有限。这项研究项目试图通过追求两个研究目标来解决这种知识匮乏的问题。首先，该项目将通过分析三个关键因素，解释如何以及为什么发展多中心模式：欧盟的作用；一个国家的国家治理模式的影响，如联邦制的存在；以及一个城市作为一个国家的首都的地位。为此，该项目将在德国、瑞典和英国的六个城市地区规划不同群体和个人的相互联系网络。这三个国家在2010年代初同样雄心勃勃地应对气候变化，这六个城市地区经过精心挑选，尽可能相似，同时也显示出正在探索的三个关键因素的差异。其次，该项目将确定这些不同城市地区的多中心做法如何以及为什么会影响雄心勃勃的气候变化政策的制定。这一目标将通过分析每个城市区域内各种行为者的气候政策文件以及约谈关键个人来实现。在这里，这项研究的一个有用的额外成果将是，能够探索英国退欧谈判期间英国政治格局的变化如何影响当地的气候变化政策。然后，在分析了不同的治理模式如何以及为什么塑造当地气候政策的雄心壮志之后，将为西欧的政策制定者提供指导。这一建议将让政策制定者了解哪些类型的治理倡议对于帮助制定更雄心勃勃的气候政策最有效。该建议将寻求改善地方层面的气候政策，它的设计将考虑到多个受众，取决于政策制定者和实践者是在地方、国家还是欧洲层面工作。因此，该项目旨在帮助各级治理更有效地缓解气候变化。最后，该项目还将通过广泛的媒体渠道分享研究结果，推出关于这一主题的电视节目，并通过几次公开讲座，努力使公民了解和增强他们如何改变自己。

The science behind climate change has been established, and now the mitigation of climate change has become a political puzzle. We need to act quickly to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, and so this project is designed to find and then share effective policy solutions that can be used across society. Until very recently, attempted solutions for climate change were 'top down': for example, the United Nations organised annual conferences, and those countries responsible for producing the most greenhouse gases dominated these negotiations. However, this approach for dealing with climate change has failed to generate effective change quickly enough, and academics are looking for new governance solutions for this most pressing and significant of issues. Increasingly, scholars argue that we need to be improving policy-making the local level, and empowering a wide range of people take a lead in responding to climate change. In particular, they argue we need 'polycentric governance'. Polycentric governance involves businesses, NGOs and government agencies working independently of each other, while also overlapping and coordinating with one another, as part of complex, multi-level networks. The outcome should be that no individual group or organisation is solely responsible for mitigating climate change, and so every 'node' in the network is encouraged to fulfil its part without fearing being exploited by others. Yet, despite growing support amongst academics for polycentric governance, there is limited research into how these networks can be created, or whether they even have a positive impact in mitigating climate change. This research project seeks to address that lack of knowledge by pursuing two research objectives. First, the project will explain how and why polycentric models are developed, by analysing three key factors: the role of the European Union; the impact of a country's national governance model, such as the presence of federalism; and a city's status as a country's capital or not. To do so, the project will map out the interconnecting networks of different groups and individuals within six city regions in Germany, Sweden and the UK. These three countries were similarly ambitious towards climate change in the early 2010s, and the six city regions have been carefully selected to be as similar as possible, while also showing differences in the three key factors under exploration. Second, the project will then determine how and why these different city regions' polycentric practices affect the creation of ambitious climate change policies. This goal will be achieved by analysing the climate policy documents of a wide range of actors within each city region, as well as interviewing key individuals. Here, a useful extra outcome of the research will be the ability to explore how changes in the UK's political landscape during the Brexit negotiations have influenced local climate change policy too. Having then analysed how and why different governance models shape the ambitiousness of local climate policy, guidance will be created for policy-makers across Western Europe. This advice will inform policy-makers about which types of governance initiatives are most effective for helping to create more ambitious climate policy. The advice will seek to improve climate policy at the local level, and it will be designed with multiple audiences in mind, depending on whether policy-makers and practitioners work at the local, national or European level. As a result, this project aims to help every level of governance to be more effective at mitigating climate change. Finally, this project will also seek to inform and empower citizens about how they can effect change themselves, by sharing the results of the study via a wide range of media outlets, pitching a TV programme on the topic, and by giving several public lectures.